380" (it is a 38 after all) and a fairly tight chamber which will normally only allow a. With a groove diameter in the neighborhood of. As noted above, the standard SAAMI chamber is not made to work with smokeless powder very well.
I have found making ammo for 38-55s is super easy if you load them like they are meant to be used.
Be cautions to not overheat the barrel, groups open up fast the hotter it gets. Even with a somewhat rough bore with open sights, 3 1/2" groups. Also, ditch the Winchester brass and get some Starline 38-55 with the thinner case walls, mine likes the 2.085, those with single shots seam to like the longer brass. First thing I'd suggest is slugging the bore, see what size you have and add.
#WINCHESTER 94AE 38 55 FULL#
This load in my rifle is a full power hunting load, not intended for routine target use. ) I wouldn't recommend this hot of a load for a rifle in poor condition, or for one with excessive headspace, and it's also reported that many of the older ones do have headspace problems. My cast boolits are from a Ideal gas check mold # 375296 that drops boolits In my 20" barrel I load 29gr. Also, to small of a bullet will fowl the bore with lead fast. 381 bullet to get rid of the keyholeing of rounds. My older 94 with the larger bore needs a. If you just start out using Starline brass you won't have this problem and can move on to the proper bullet size. 377 reamer into the case mouth in a metal lathe to the depth of a seated bullet + a little. I got around this problem by sizing the brass first, then running a. Like 451witworth, I also have the problem with Winchester brass being to thick at the mouth to load the proper size bullet for the bore and still be able to chamber. The change reportedly came in about 1920 production. It was reported to me that Winchester used 2 different bore sizes for 38-55 over the years. Use a micrometer to measure the slug, most calipers can routinely have. A chamber cast or a pound cast should give you an idea of your throat dimensions.įirst I'll start out by saying I have a somewhat early Winchester 94 with a 20" barrel and I just went through the same problem. Im guessing you need to find out what you chamber and throat look like before investing in anything. My impression is that "modern" winchester barrels for. Since I've never had anything but excellent results with my Crazy Horse I've never slugged the bore and done a chamber cast to see what the throat is like. 375 H&H and currently shoot the Lee and the 375449 cast,sized,and lubed the same way in a Whitworth. I think it was too long for the twist in my rifle, but your 375248 bullet should not be a problem. They would tumble into a 4-5 inch group at 50 yards. The only issue I've had with tumbling bullets is with a Saeco tapered bullet that weighed just over 300 grains as cast. This load feeds smoothly and gives me groups ( 5 shot) under 2 MOA using a receiver sight. They are fairly soft, cast from my bullet trap scrap. Seated to crimp groove and crimped so it will feed through the magazine for Lever Action Silhouette. I bought some fired brass at a Gunshow that had been neck turned, but all that brass has done is develop mouth cracks after 4-5 loadings despite being annealed after each firing. It will not chamber a round loaded with a bullet larger than. Anybody ever got one of these rifles to shoot? I'd sure like to know what worked. Increasing the powder charge resulted in unburned granules in the bore and a jump in ES/SD, so that's probably a dead end.
The sights are solid and I was shooting off a benchrest beneath the forearm with slight down pressure and a tail bag so I don't think it was me. Muzzle velocity was 1435 fps ES 40 SD 11 but a 2.5 x 3 foot target backer couldn't catch them all. I had a consistent load with Winchester brass, WLR primer, 19.6 grains of AA5744 and the 230 grain hardcast bullet. No leading that I can see, but they were tumbling by the time they reached the target. This weekend, I tried two loads with hardcast boolits that measured. 378 sizer, both converted the barrel to a smoothbore in short order. I tried some Ideal 375248s in 30:1 as cast and run through a. Ultramax cowboy loads semi-sort of group at 100 yards but I'm failing miserably at making ammo for this rifle. I spent my Christmas money on an unfired Oliver F Winchester Commemorative in 38-55.